[Katsuyuki012]

Until recently Namie was definitely a big name in my playlists. Sadly, the tv interview she did in December changed it all, and from now on I am about to express my not very pleasant opinion. It’s an extremely rare situation, that the opinion of the artists I listen to, their attitude or actions influence my view of the artist. This interview appeared to be such case. To be honest it`s not something shocking since most of these things I already thought Namie is but her actually admitting to it just made me feel so toxic about her and before that I simply wouldn`t want to believe it in a way... Namie is gone from my playlists and files I downloaded. I have lost every single piece of respect towards her and I will explain why.

First of all, she is currently 40 and, as she said, she started considering retirement in her late ...20s. I am sorry but do I need to repeat? 20s! If it was the shock of becoming popular or something like that I would understand but no - in the interview, this motive keeps coming back in the span of her whole career. The only reason why she pursued was the dream she decided on, which was to give a huge final concert which happened to be her 20th anniversary Dome tour. After its huge success, she kept thinking of retirement but decided to make things even more interesting by...retiring during the 25th anniversary, release an album a year till then and keep touring. As much as I enjoyed Namie’s music and concerts this attitude is simply outrageous to me. She has made the image of a martyr. What kind of person, who supposedly likes their job keeps thinking about retirement for the whole length of their professional life?

Then there was an initial period with Komuro who produced her early hits. She mentioned huge pressure she felt due to the fact many other Komura’s clients were selling well. Again I got vibes of vulnerable, weak girl who didn’t know where she was. Also, during Komuro’s period, she was guided about every single thing by him: how the song would be recorded, jackets, promotion videos, how to perform the songs… she had literally no single thing to say and she was happy (or sad, who knows now) with such state. All she would do was perform. After this she was left on her own, to be her own producer, and she was totally lost as she said herself. What did she do? She was being an observant “music producer”, definitely not an artist. She admitted that there was a lot of trial and error and by watching the audience she knew what songs were bad. In other words, she just wanted to please the crowds and create things so they sell well - the end of the story. The only positive thing she says is that she has learned to enjoy singing and dancing at the same time, and the moment she started enjoying her work was….learning that it should give her joy….She says she found it but I will not believe it, since she kept thinking about retirement. I have no words.
Then, there is a reason why she stopped going to tv and that was: “I am not a very intelligent person and have nothing interesting to say”. She said that saying something interesting became a burden to her. I didn’t know that in shows like Music Station or others you are quizzed from the history, or they check your IQ. This is the same reason why she resigned from MCs.

This interview was very revealing. What I saw was Namie being a mainstream follower who is much more performer and the producer of music that would sell, very little passion though, rather then an artist.
I try to never do that in public discussions but I will mention Ayu. We may have varied opinions about her music, but she has never, even in the darkest hour said that she was tired. Not only that, she is totally opposite to Namie in this department. Her hearing has been getting worse with time but each time she speaks out, she keeps emphasising how she will not stop singing because it’s her life and those are not words to be taken lightly. She has learned acrobatics, her shows are always spectacular and even if repetitive at times - they are big, bright, theatrical and even if you don’t like Ayu, find her music boring - she knows how to put on a show. She is very involved in the creation process, writing all her lyrics makes her superior to Namie already. Speaking of lyrics, Namie’s English is horrible and without checking the words of songs on the internet - I wouldn’t be able to tell a lot of it. With Ayu, it’s not the case anymore that much. And there is no excuse, if you do something and earn really good money - do it well, learn those few lines at least, by heart. How, after being a fan of such passionate artist like Ayu, I am supposed to just ignore what Namie said, how she made herself a victim of her success? I don’t even believe that she actually decides about jackets and all. The moment she opened her mouth I realized how much Ayu deserves to be called an artist and Namie simply a performer while I used to think of Ayu as a performer with passion. It’s understandable she kept herself quiet, because if she talked people would see how very uninteresting and to some point fake she was. Namie was produced, during all her career, even when she was her boss all she did was produce goods in the forms of music. She just wanted to sell and feel the joy of fans during concerts who had no clue that she put very little heart in her works.

Because of her feeling like a martyr, lack of passion and retiring finally, I am very much not interested in what happens to her professionally. I am glad she is retiring, she was very overrated in my opinion and did not deserve the publicity she got.

This is it tbh.. I hope no one`s gonna start bashing me like crazy although it wouldn`t be surprising because that`s what simply tends to happen when one expresses their negative opinion about somebody or something and especially with a topic like Namie who`s barely critisized, it is something that can expected...